But the creation of media kits, management of inventory, and billing/collection were simply too onerous. Realizing that this was a problem for most small and medium-sized bloggers who don’t want to just collect AdSense pennies, they built the ad-management and optimization solution they wanted for themselves.

“Out of the gate we’re focusing on three things: placement, management, and the actual sale,” sad Burger.

Placement is simple: after signing up and entering the site, publishers are presented with a framed view of their site. They simply drag and drop ads right where they want them.

I tried it on my own personal blog … the grey block at left under my tag cloud is an ad unit — a skyscraper, ironically — that I simply dragged into my sidebar:

Above: Skyscrpr: drag & drop ad placement

Image Credit: John Koetsier

After setting up ads exactly where you want them, you simply include one line of Javascript code into your site to activate the ads … which means the solution works with any blogging platform, including WordPress, tumblr, SquareSpace, and even venerable old Blogger.

To manage ads, publishers log in to a dashboard and review sales, performance of existing ads, and suggestions for improvement. Currently, the suggestions are just that, but soon Burger expects to have a more sophisticated solution:

“We’re getting to a point where soon we’ll be able to auto-optimize ad placement and mix,” he told VentureBeat.

That means that, after initial set-up, Skyscrpr would vary ad selection, placement, and frequency to maximize blogger revenue. This feature will not be available at launch tomorrow, but Burger expects it within a few months.

Above: An infographic-style media kit

Image Credit: Skyscrpr

The sale itself is, of course, the most critical component: nothing else matters without it.

Then Skyscrpr allows advertisers to purchase inventory right there on the publisher’s own blog, and handles all the payment details. The company will be taking a cut of the proceeds, of course, but it’s not yet disclosing the exact percentage.

At launch, only direct on-site sales will be enabled, but an ad marketplace that will aggregate all participating bloggers’ inventory and will allow advertisers to purchase audiences and demographics is forthcoming.

“[Advertisers will] be able to slice and dice and pick exactly what [they] want,” says Burger.

Skyscrpr is funded with angel and founder money, plus $20,000 from the GrowLab accelerator/incubator program. The company is currently raising a seed round, which it anticipates closing in late August.